Card Counting

Any conversation of Blackjack strategies would not be complete without some consideration of the topic of ‘card counting’. This is one of the most sophisticated (and probably misunderstood) methods to gain advantage in a casino, and although not technically immoral, using it overtly will no doubt invite a rapid invitation to leave any club you’re playing at!

The essence of card including is to keep track of which cards have been played since the last hobble of the deck(s), to gain knowledge of how the outstanding cards will favour you. Card counting is a technique that only works in tandem with knowledge of the basic strategy for Blackjack, so it requires perseverance and a sharp brain to execute plus good acting skills to conceal from the casino. In short, it ain’t easy and is probably beyond the capabilities of most casual players. More importantly, at online casinos the virtual deck is invariably shuffled after every hand effectively negating any attempts to use card counting, so we’d suggest the smartest strategy is to just stick to using the right basic strategy.

For those still snooping about the mechanics of card counting, although there are a number of variations, the basic scheme is to assess the density of high value cards remaining in the deck by keeping track of cards already dealt. This is done by assigning point values to cards, and keeping a tally as cards are dealt. The tally will begin to indicate whether the deck is getting more or less favourable to the player. The basic principle is that a deck that becomes more and more biased towards dealing tens and Aces is an advantage to a player and vice versa.

For those still snooping about the mechanics of card counting, although there are a number of variations, the basic scheme is to assess the density of high value cards remaining in the deck by keeping track of cards already dealt. This is done by assigning point values to cards, and keeping a tally as cards are dealt. The tally will begin to indicate whether the deck is getting more or less favourable to the player. The basic principle is that a deck that becomes more and more biased towards dealing tens and Aces is an advantage to a player and vice versa.